Dispensing holder for rolled sheet material



Dec.'31', 1957 I w. G. THIEMAN 2,818,221

DISPENSING "HELPER FOR ROLLED SHEET MATERIAL Filed April 21, 1955 7a /4 i) "r Q Z /5 a llg INVENTOR W6; THZZ'MAN ATTORNEY DISPENSING HOLDER FOR ROLLED SHEET MATERIAL William G. Thieman, Jackson Center, Ohio Application April 21, 1955, Serial No. 502,881

1 Claim. (Cl. 242-555) This invention relates to appliances for supporting and controlling the dispensing of spirally wrapped webs of thin sheet materials, such as wrapping paper, films, foils and the like.

Such appliances are formed to provide upright frames for the replaceable and rotatable reception of rolls of wrapping paper and other thin and flexible sheet materials. The frames of such appliances carry fixed or movable, longitudinally extending, cutter bars so disposed as to admit of transverse shearing of the webs of sheet materials withdrawn from the frame-supported rolls thereof in obtaining free sheets of desired lengths of such materials. As customarily formed, such roll-holding and dispensing appliances are provided with roll-braking means separate from the cutter bars for preventing undesired or casual rotation of the rolls and resultant paper wastage.

In other constructions in which the cutter bars themselves are formed and mounted to serve in the dual capacity of both roll-cutting and braking means, the forces applied thereto in transversely severing material webs tend to elevate or remove the cutter bars from braking or clamping engagement with associated roll bodies, so that the same are ineffective in preventing undesired roll rotation during web-severing operations. Another objection often encountered in the customarily employed constructions for mounting cutter bars is the inability of such bars to maintain the most effecive operating position in relation to associated paper rolls. Such rolls diminish in diameter as paper sheets are severed therefrom and this variation in diameter, and in the resultant working positions of cutter bars engaged with the outer circumferences thereof, forms a primary cause in reducing the efiiciency of such bars both in their web-shearing capacities and as roll-braking and rotation-arresting means,

In accordance with the present invention, an assembly is provided comprising a thin, narrow and elongated cutter bar rigidly carried by the outer ends of a pair of swinging supporting arms having their upper ends pivotally mounted on adjoining sides of a roll-supporting frame. The cutter bar is formed with an upper and outer longitudinally extending cutting edge and an inner and lower parallel roll-engaging and braking edge, there being guide means carried by the assembly to direct a Web of paper or the like from an associated roll through a guide slot and thence in a generally upward direction, the free portion of the web being passed over the cutter bar for engagement with the web-shearing edge thereof, whereby when such shearing is performed, forces developed thereby operate in conjunction with gravity to maintain the lower and inner edge of the cutter bar in firm and positive contact with the body of the paper roll in a line above a horizontal plane passing through the axis of roll rotation, whereby to exert a braking effect and precluding casual roll rotation during web severance.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a roll-holding and dispensing appliance wherein a novel roll-cutting and braking assembly is provided.

Another object is to provide an improved swinging support for adjustably mounting such a cutter bar on the frame of the roll holder, and wherein said support is formed to include upwardly disposed pivotal elements mounted for transverse adjustment in frame-carried bearing means, whereby to enable the cutter bar to occupy an effective tangential operative position with an assoeiated paper roll, particularly as the latter diminishes in diameter following withdrawal and shearing of lengths thereof.

A further object is to provide a simple, practical and eflicient combined cutter bar and brake attachment for paper roll-supporting and dispensing holders, and one which comprises an improvement generally in appliances of this kind.

For a further understanding of the invention, including additional objects and advantages thereof, reference may now be had to the following description and the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a paper roll-supporting and dispensing appliance, and disclosing the same equipped with the cutter bar mechanism of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken through the appliance on the plane indicated by the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail horizontal sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

In accordance with my invention, there is provided a paper-roll-receiving and dispensing holder H, which, as here shown, includes a rectangular frame formed to provide a horizontally and longitudinally extending, baseengaging, member 5, a parallel top member 6 and a pair of vertically disposed, longitudinally spaced side standards 7 to which the ends of the members 5 and 6 are secured, as at 7a. The inner faces of the standards are formed with inwardly projecting, socket-forming, extensions 8 for the removable reception of the opposite ends of a mandrel 9, the latter carrying a cylindrical roll 10 of paper, or other thin flexible sheet material. The present invention provides improved means for governing the withdrawal of web-forming lengths of the sheet material and the transverse severance of such lengths.

To this end, the inner faces of the standards 7 contiguous to the thickened upper ends thereof are formed with opposing, longitudinally aligned, transversely extending slots 11. Each of these slots, as shown in Fig. 2, is formed with transversely spaced, vertically depending, extensions 12 which have their lower ends terminated in seating enlargements 13. Formed to occupy selectively these enlargements are outwardly and horizontally directed pivot pins 14. The latter are carried by the upper ends of a pair of cutter bar supporting arms 15, which are adapted for swinging movement in unison and vertical planes. The lower or outer ends of the arms 15 are formed with laterally directed flanges 15a forming bottom seating faces against which are placed and secured at 15b the ends of a thin, flat, relatively narrow, and longitudinally extending cutter bar 16.

This bar, in all its positions of operative relationship with the roll 10, is disposed in upwardly and outwardly directed, angular relation to the outer circumference of the roll. The upper and outer longitudinally extending edge 17 of the bar is sharpened to provide a web-shearing or cutting edge, while the inner and lower roll-engaging edge 18 of the bar, which extends parallel to the cutting edge 17, is relatively blunt and fiat, this being done in order that the edge 18 will serve as a brake in precluding casual or undesired rotation on the part of the roll. Adjacent to the edge 18, the body of the cutting bar may be Patented Dec. 31, 1957 1:

provided with an integral longitudinally and downwardly extending reinforcing and strengthening rib 19.

Also, this cutter bar assembly is formed to include a longitudinally extending guide rod 20. The ends of this rod are received in aligned mounting sockets provided therefor in the inner pair of arm-carried flanges 15a. The rod 20 is thus mounted in a spaced manner from the upper or inner surface of the cutter bar, this being done in order that a length of sheet material, withdrawn from the roll 10, may pass between the guide rod and the upper or inner surface of the cutter bar. The sheet material is then trained so that it passes over the upper or outer cutting edge of the bar, where its free end may be grasped to permit of the withdrawal of a desired length of the material from the roll. When this length has been reached, the material is sheared or cut from the body of the material contained on the roll by drawing the same downwardly upon and across the cutting edge 17 to pro duce complete transverse severance thereof.

It will be noted that the reaction forces developed in the cutter bar assembly during sheet cutting will serve to maintain the braking edge 18 in firm positive engagement with the cylindrical body of the roll, so that the latter is retained against rotation during the web-shearing operation. However, the mounting of the cutter bar is, also, such that the force of gravity maintains the edge 18 in engagement with the roll body independently of the force developed during sheet cutting, thus preventing casual rotation of the roll in response to environmental conditions, such as vibration or the like, when the apparatus is idle.

The slots 11 and their depending journalling extensions 12 enable the pivotal axes of the arms 15 to be shifted transversely of the holder frame in an inward direction as the diameter of the roll diminishes. By this means, the cutter bar may be maintained at all times in its most effective and eflicient angular position of operation in relation to the roll and throughout all changes in diameter of the latter. To shift the pivot pins 14 of the arms 15 from one set of seating bearings 13 to another, it is merely necessary to lift the arms sufficiently to raise the pins to the horizontal level of the slots 11. Thereafter, the assembly is shifted bodily to move the pins 14 lengthwise of the slots 11 until the pins are aligned with the upper open ends of a selected set of vertical extensions 12. The assembly is then lowered to cause the pins 14 to descend in the selected extensions until reaching bearing positions in the seating enlargements 13 formed in the closed bottoms of the extensions. The arms 15 may then be released, allowing the braking edge 18 of the cutting bar to engage gravitationally the paper. roll. The free outer edge of the roll may then be trained between the guide rod 20 and the upper or inner face of the cutting bar and outwardly advanced for convenient and accessible grasping by an operator of the appliance when a length of paper is to be withdrawn from the roll. It will, be'noted that the guide rod is spaced downwardly or inwardly from the cutting edge of the bar 16. This is done so that following sheet severance a free length of paper will be present between the cutting edge and the rod to admit of grasping thereof between the fingers of the operator in subsequently executed withdrawal operations.

While I have herein shown and described a preferred form of my invention, 1 would have it understood that changes may be made in the form, proportions and con struction of the several parts of my improved roll holding and cutting mechanism without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

A holder for supporting and dispensing rolled paper and the like, comprising a frame including a pair of relatively spaced upright standards provided with means to rotatably support a roll of sheet material therebetween; opposed socket means formed in said standards adjacent the upper ends thereof, each socket means including an elongated, generally horizontally disposed slot having a plurality of relatively spaced, vertically depending extensions defining a like number of bearing seats, the bearing seats of each socket means being substantially parallel to one another and disposed above the roll of sheet material and spaced one from the other circumferentially relative to the roll of sheet material; and a cutter bar and brake assembly including a pair of relatively spaced side arms each provided at one end thereof with a pivot pin rotatably and selectively positioned in one of the vertically depending slot extensions of said socket means, said side arms extending substantially tangential to the outer surface of a roll of sheet material carried between the standards of said frame, a substantially flat cutting and braking strip carried by the opposite ends of said side arms and extending longitudinally of a roll of sheet material positioned between said standards, said strip having its transverse dimension disposed in a plane extending angularly upwardly and outwardly from an associated roll of sheet material positioned between said standards and being formed with an inner longitudinal braking edge disposed in frictional engagement with the outer circumferential surface of the roll of sheet material and an outer longitudinal cutting edge disposed in the same transverse plane as said braking edge, and a guide rod carried by said assembly in upwardly spaced relation to said strip and defining with the latter a guide passage through which the free end portion of a roll of sheet material may be passed above said strip and supported for downward tearing movement against the outer cutting edge of said strip, the downward tearing movement of the free end portion of a roll of sheet material across the outer cutting edge of said strip serving to force the inner braking edge of said strip radially inwardly and into tight frictional engagement with the outer surface of the roll of sheet material to prevent rotation thereof during cutting operations.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 842,487 McMahon Jan. 29, 1907 1,831,746 Little et al. Nov. 10, 1931 1,947,340 Hallwood Feb. 13, 1934 FOREIGN PATENTS 389,009 Great Britain Mar. 9, 1933 

